Nightmare Fuel / Symphogear

aka: Senki Zesshou Symphogear

"The apple crashed down on the ground..."

As a Moments Subpage, ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED. You Have Been Warned.

• The attack on the stadium in the first episode. Imagine that you're going to your very first live concert of your favorite band. The performance is wonderful and the singers are amazing... then suddenly, Eldritch Abominations come out from nowhere and attack the audience, turning them into ash or getting them crushed by the collateral damage. As the pop idols transform and fight the monsters off, you too become injured by falling debris. One of the singers tries to save you, but the monsters are overwhelming her, and a shard of her damaged outfit gets you Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. The last thing you see before you pass out from blood loss is her body disinigrating due to power overexertion while her partner cradles her fading body in her arms...
• Kanade's death in the first episode. Her Swan Song is too much for her body to bear and she literally dissolves into nothing. When the scene is examined closely, it looks like her head rips off in the process.
• The Transformation Sequence at the end of the first episode. Body Horror up to eleven: her very heart and blood vessels turning purple, thorns entangling with those blood vessels, and mechanical parts erupting and forcing themselves into Tachibana's body. The Glowing Eyes of Doom and the Slasher Smile make it all the more terrifying!
• Tsubasa after her Swan Song. Good Lord...
  • It's back with vengeance in G, involving Maria's sister Serena as seen in the picture. What's worse is that this is in the first scene of the season, already setting the Darker and Edgier tone of G.
• In episode seven, Ryoko brings Hibiki in for a medical checkup after her battle with Chris. She reports to Hibiki that the fusion between the fragment of Gungnir and her body seems to be spreading, but assures her that there should be no negative side-effects whatsoever. This eventually turns out to be Blatant Lies, as we are later able to see X-Rays of Hibiki's body on a computer screen in Ryoko's office. What the examination revealed was an image of barbed roots growing throughout her body! GYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
  • Disturbing as that image is, it still doesn't prove it's negatively affecting her. Though, given that Ryoko's The Mole, a Mad Scientist, and a sadist, she probably is lying.
  • As the G shows, yeah, Ryoko's lying her ass off. It's just not negatively affecting Hibiki yet. And by the middle of G, Hibiki's condition has progressed to the point of having crystals growing out of her body.
• Berserk Hibiki from episode 12.
  • What's worse, Hibiki has at least some awareness of what she's doing in Berserk Mode, but she can't control herself. She's shown crying during her fight with Tsubasa, and not Berserker Tears either.
• A very early example: If the Noise so much as touch you, you disintegrate into ash, and as the main page (correctly) points out, it's slow enough that you can feel it happening.. It's an even more horrifically-specific application of Literally Shattered Lives.
  • The first episode even gives you two close ups. The second is particularly disturbing as it shows a young girl screaming and crying as she's killed by the Noise.
  Girl: "I don't want to die! I don't want to die! No!"
• The Nephilim from G. Oh, god, the Nephilim. It's a humanoid creature with a taste for flesh, and is neither human nor Noise. Its crowning moment is biting and ripping Hibiki's arm off after she tries and fails to make it eat her fist.
  • At the start of the next episode, Hibiki somehow manages to top all that! Immediately, she becomes berserk again while growing a new arm, beats down the Nephilim with ease, and rips its heart out!
• The ending sequence of season 1 is very chilling as it contains images of bodies that are missing limbs and decaying.(See Creepy Doll on the main page) The lyrics would imply it's about Chris's backstory and subsequent mindset.
  • In particular, one of them is tied up, has a bullet-hole in the forehead, and has stiches across it's crotch. Not pleasant to think about.
• Season 3 gives us the Autoscorers, who are straight-up confirmed to be artificially-made, and they move in ways that no human would dare attempt. However, their main perk is their Kiss of Death, in which they reduce their unfortunate victim to a lifeless, white corpse. We already see a couple instances of this in the first two episodes, but Episode 3 gives us entire groups of people lying dead on the ground (one of the girls who happens upon this scene appropriately screams). On top of that, they can create special types of Noise called Arcanoise that can destroy Symphogears.
  • The Autoscorers can also destroy Symphogears directly, and are programmed to enjoy doing so. Furthermore, if Carol doesn't find the user's synch ratio "interesting," she's given them permission to use the Arcanoise to slice those people into tiny little pieces!
  • Micha is creepy enough in the opening credits to send shivers down your spine. When she shows up in the series proper, she's pretty gleeful about the prospect of "dissecting" people. In general she acts like a violently psycotic maniac.
• In GX E6, Tsubasa and Chris activate the IGNITE Module upgrade to their Symphogears. You thought Berserk Hibiki was scary? The enhanced Symphogear tuns into a dagger, stabs them both through the heart and forces both Tsubasa and Chris into "Berserk Mode" artificially, with red glowing eyes, smoky shadows, and lots and lots of blood and screaming. They're both fully aware of what's happening, and yes, they finally realize that the Hibiki they picked on when they met her, understands more about pain and suffering than either of them ever could. Why? Because Hibiki went through that, repeatedly, on her own, without monitoring or backup, and came back every time!
  • The IGNITE module essentially uses rage and anger to augment the fighting power of the Symphogears. It becomes obvious in their expressions and poses during the IGNITE transformation sequences, when Hibiki strikes poses reminiscent of her berserk forms from the first two seasons, Tsubasa is the model picture for Tranquil Fury, and Chris appears to be under a barely-controlled trigger happy state.
  • Adding further to the scariness of the IGNITE module, it can also go wrong, with Maria descending into true berserk mode when she fails to control the IGNITE module.
  • Speaking about IGNITE using rage and anger as a power source. Hibiki, the Stepford Smiler too close to the edge, is the one with the least anger control issues on the team of Symphogear wielders. This is shown by the fact that not only does she use the IGNITE mode flawlessly on the very first try, while everyone else had serious issues, she leads Tsubasa and Chris into using their versions without difficulty. Think about that for a moment.
• The fact that Phara talks to Tsubasa and Maria right after she was cut in half in Episode 10.
• Hibiki is going to live with the guilt of seeing Carol every time she looks at Elfnein. The others she fought in her time as a Symphogear user either found some respite in their end or joined her cause; Dr. Ver became a hero in his own way, Fine saw sense in her death, and the F.I.S. girls pulled a Heel–Face Turn. Carol, on the other hand, couldn't be saved, no matter how hard Hibiki sung or what kind of songs she sang.
• AXZ Alca-Noise being used as weapons by a military junta. The fact that these things are in the hands of unscrupulous humans willing to turn them on civilians is a very disturbing idea.
• At the end of episode 4 of AXZ, Big Bad Adam Weishaupt makes his debut, whatever comedy could be derived from his Full-Frontal Assault is promptly wiped away when he casually creates nuclear fusion in his hand and proceeds to nuke the entire area with a ten megaton blast, killing countless innocents and reducing the whole place to a glassed crater. The sheer triviality with which he can unleash such destructive power is only punctuated by how flippant he is about it, treating the whole thing like a routine experiment and jokingly complaining about how little human lives are worth.
• Maria's flashbacks to her days in F.I.S. in Episode 6 show that while she had to endure drug testing like the other receptor children, she was one of the luckier ones. Case in point, there's a shot of one kid who ends up in an accident so severe that we see him laying on the ground with his left leg twisted and bent in the opposite direction.
• Dr. Ver is an unsettling man in general. From creepy comments, uncomfortable physical closeness to the fourteen-year-old Kirika and Shirabe, and increasingly unhinged and psychotic nature, the good Doctor brings a sense of dread and anticipation every time he shows up, in a "Now what's he going to do?" sort of way.
  • Take the above, and then consider that Miku was at his mercy for most of Episode 9 of G. Most viewers were probably terrified for the poor girl, and with good reason!
• Fine being able to take over people descended from her at the slightest hint of relic activity is just... brr. Ryoko, by all accounts, was basically murdered and taken over by a malevolent entity when Tsubasa activated her relic. It really puts Kirika's fear through most of G's endgame in perspective.
• XV racks up the violence starting from episode two. It's a call back from Kanade and Tsubasa's concert from episode one of the first season, except it's utterly brutal and more horrifying than ever before. We see lots of people get killed by Alca Noise, some of them trying to escape through the exit, only for them get caught and shredded into dust.
  • Millaarc is the girl who orchestrated the attack, mercilessly raiding the concert and killing every innocent audience member in sight. And that's not all, while fighting Tsubasa she grabs the girl lying on the floor in fear as a human shield, only to later spear her right through the back with her arm, killing her instantly.
    • Only the initial piercing gets the Gory Discretion Shot. Tsubasa (and the viewer) gets a clear view of the poor girl’s gored out torso right afterwards.
    • She manages to break Tsubasa's composure by pushing all her trauma buttons at once. Tsubasa's screams of anguish is the stuff of nightmares.
    • The death of the young girl at the hands of the enemy is a reminder of what would happened if Hibiki didn't survive in the first season.
• Milaarc’s special ability, Stained Glance. Not much is known about it, but it’s clear that it’s long lasting and it messes with the target’s mind. Tsubasa is affected by it, causing her to hallucinate and slide into bouts of reckless rage during battle.
  • After seasons of character development, it’s jarring to see her sliding back into her old personality due to Milaarc’s influence, seeing herself as a blade to be used instead of the confident, free bird she considered herself to be.
  • In episode 7 of XV, she mentions Kanade of all people with a wistful expression. The worried glances from her peers are telling.
  • Then her grandfather Fudo uses Stained Glance on her during a cell phone call, assuring her that she can always come back to him. When one remembers his actions in previous seasons, as well as the verbal putdowns he’s given in this one, the emotional abuse demonstrated here is disturbing.
• Epidode 8 of XV: Miku is absorbed into the divine power, becoming posessed by Shem-ha, the proclaimed god of the world. Those inhuman, red-ringed eyes will haunt you.
• Episode 9 of XV. Hoo boy.
  • Fudo’s xenophobic jerkassery climbs to new heights. Let’s count the ways:
    • Fudo uses Stained Glance on Tsubasa once again, making her Brainwashed and Crazy and stopping her comrades from apprehending Shem-ha!Miku at a vulnerable moment.
    • Fudo openly states his intent to take the power of the gods for himself in a twisted desire to protect Japan.
    • Fudo stops an entire escort of Red Shirt S.O.N.G. agents with a single terrifying Death Glare.
    • Fudo, in a Call-Back to the first season, manages to overpower Genjuro by suplexing him into a rock.
    • Fudo tries to shoot Tsubasa, his own daughter. Then he gloats about it when Yatsuhiro (his son and Tsubasa’s father) takes the bullet instead.
    • Fudo’s powering up during his battle with Tsubasa involves his muscles bulging disturbingly.
  • As Noble Red tries to take advantage of the chaos to steal the divine power for themselves, Shem-ha!Miku wakes up. What’s the first thing she does? She stabs Elsa while bisecting her and Milaarc in that same single strike, then beheads Vanessa before she can fire a single shot. As an extra cherry on top, we get to see Vanessa’s POV as her head topples to the ground.
    • Shem-ha!Miku doesn’t transform like in the last episode, but it’s proven here that she doesn’t need to transform to be dangerous. No talking, no emotion, and barely any movement other than her right arm—just her cold, efficient execution of Noble Red in less than ten seconds.

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